Saudi Forces Intercept Houthi Missile Fired Towards Medina

Photo: AFP via Al Jazeera

Saudi air defence shot down a ballistic missile fired towards Medina on Thursday, the Saudi-led coalition said, minutes after the kingdom warned of danger near the Red Sea port of Yanbu. The Houthis denied they had aimed at the holy city at all, in a claim and counter-claim that shows how fast the Yemen war is now spilling into Saudi Arabia.

Coalition spokesman Maj Gen Turki al-Malki announced the interception in a post on X. "Air defence intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile launched by the terrorist Houthi militia toward the Medina region," he wrote. The coalition gave no launch site and reported no casualties or damage, Al Jazeera reported.

The announcement came just minutes after Saudi Arabia's civil defence agency warned of a possible threat around Yanbu, a major oil export hub on the Red Sea. The agency later said the threat had passed. It is not clear whether the missile and the Yanbu warning were linked.

The Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, rejected the claim outright. Their military spokesman Yahya Saree called it a "blatant and grave falsehood" and said the group's attacks target "only oil facilities and military bases". Arab News reported that a Houthi drone was later shot down over the kingdom's Eastern Province.

Why it matters goes beyond the battlefield. Medina is home to the Prophet's Mosque and is the second holiest city in Islam. Millions of Muslims travel there each year, including large numbers from Pakistan for Umrah and Hajj. A missile aimed at the city itself would mark a sharp escalation, which is why the Houthi denial came so fast. Saudi Arabia remains Pakistan's closest Arab partner, and any threat to the holy cities is felt deeply here.

This is not the first such claim. On 31 October the coalition said it had shot down a drone headed for Medina, and the Houthis denied that too. The Houthis have fired missiles at Saudi Arabia regularly in recent weeks, hitting airports and disrupting flights, and they have struck Yanbu, a key outlet for Saudi oil through the East-West pipeline, several times in recent months. The same pattern is playing out at sea, where five tankers have now been hit in Hormuz as fears of a US strike grow.

The missile claim came as Yemen's government forces said they had made gains in Taiz, claiming 1,298 strikes in a day and about 400 Houthi fighters killed, figures Al Jazeera said it could not verify. The government has also said 21 Iranian and Hezbollah experts are running Houthi operations. The fighting is part of the wider US-Israeli war on Iran that began in February, and analysts say it now looks like a long war of attrition.

Sources

• Al Jazeera: Saudi coalition intercepts missile fired towards Medina
• Arab News: Coalition says Houthi missile fired at Saudi Arabia's Madinah region intercepted
• Reuters via Jerusalem Post: Houthi attacks prompt Saudi Yanbu warnings as missile intercepted near Medina

The next test will be whether the Houthis claim a strike of their own, or the coalition reports another interception in the coming days.

#SaudiArabia #Medina #Houthi #MiddleEast #Yemen #BreakingNews #PakistanNews